It represents the subset of the process's virtual address space that is valid, meaning that it can be referenced without incurring a page fault. This is a count of physical memory (RAM) rather than virtual address space. In the same display, the 'Mem Usage' column in Windows XP and Server 2003, or the 'Working Set (Memory)' column in Windows Vista and later, shows each process's current working set. The total commit charge will always be larger than the sum of these values, as the total includes system-wide allocations such as the paged pool. The same value is labeled 'Commit size' in Windows Vista and later. In Task Manager's 'Processes' display, each process's contribution to the 'total commit charge' is shown in the 'VM size' column in Windows XP and Server 2003.

Similar displays in the Task Manager of Windows Vista and later have been changed to reflect usage of physical memory. In Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0, these same displays are labeled 'Mem usage' but again actually show the commit charge and commit limit. These do not show how much has actually been written to the pagefile, but only the maximum potential pagefile usage: The amount of pagefile that would be used if all current contents of RAM had to be removed. The height of the graph area corresponds to the commit limit. In the Task Manager utility under Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the graphical displays labeled as 'PF usage' and 'Page File Usage History,' despite their labels, reflect not the pagefile contents but the total (or current) commit charge. It will also change when already-running programs allocate or free private virtual memory for example, with the VirtualAlloc and VirtualFree APIs. The commit charge increases when any program is opened and used, and goes down when a program is closed. The program Process Explorer reports the same set of values, labeling the Total as Current, and additionally providing percentages of Peak and Current towards the Limit value.

Peak is the highest amount that the total commit charge has reached since the operating system was last started.

The corresponding performance counter is called 'Commit Limit'.

Limit is the maximum possible value for Total it is the sum of the current pagefile size plus the physical memory available for pageable contents (this excludes RAM that is assigned to non-pageable areas).

The corresponding performance counter is called 'Committed Bytes'. This is composed of main memory (RAM) and disk (pagefiles).

Total is the amount of pagefile-backed virtual address space in use, i.e., the current commit charge.

The Windows Task Manager utility for Windows XP and Server 2003, in its Performance tab, shows three counters related to commit charge:

Cpu usage vs physical memory